B&W Owner's Thread - Page 58

Nice shots :-) Isn't it great having new gear? I find I completely rediscover my love of music each and every time and this time with my new NAD gear, Sonos, 683's and 685s is no exception. I think I have sat and listened to musi more in the past week and a half than I did the previous 5 years!

Now where's my camera - I've got some picture taking of my own to do!

I know what you mean. It's my favorite thing about this hobby as well. The first few weeks with new gear, especially speakers, is magical.

[quote=Pibbo;12086556]Oh no, my camera is charged!

I feel like such a whore for B&W but it's ok. I love these guys.


FWIW --- a couple of your shots remind me of the brochure from B&W.
Translation = Nicely done. Feel good about it.

..Mark

Just go visit your local dealer and they can order the tweeter from B&W for you. I don't know how much it will cost, but a tweeter for my 601 S2 was $75. I took my speaker into the dealer, and he helped me install it in the shop.

This is a little too long of a thread for me to catch up on, but I've got a brand new pair of 803D's coming to me mid next week and I want to know what other 803S or 803D users are running for amplification.

I'll be trading up from my Nautilus 804s, which are currently driven by a NAD T973 amp, which outputs 200w x 2 into 8 ohms for stereo.

What are other 803 users running? Classe? McIntosh? My dealer offered to lend me the Classe CA-2200 to try out, even though I've been skeptical as it's only 100w x 2 and a very healthy chunk of change. I know some fellow 800 series owners who swear by Classe, though.

Of course, I will be listening to different amps on my own, but I'm curious to hear what other users are running.

Thanks! I'm excited as heck for these speakers!

The classe is a nice amp even if its "only" 100 watts. Theoretically you could get almost 110 dB through the 90db sensitive 803d. The classe does double into 4ohms which would help for any impedance dip that is probably in the 803d. Although it's idle power consumption is just over 100 watts, you would probably want to 12V trigger it and keep it in standby.

Depends on how large your room is. If you live in a cavern, you will need as much power as you can get. If you are in a sealed medium sized room (18x12x10 or so) 100 watts is fine. I have 804s and at 78dB average with 97ish dB peaks, my Rotel RB-1070 barely took 2 watts of power beyond its idle power draw according to my "kill-a-watt" meter. And that was plenty loud!

So... do take your dealer's offer and try it at home, you might like what you hear!

Actually the CA2200 is 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms and doubling down at 4ohms.

That amplifer is well worth the money and will bring out the best that those speakers have to offer. What upstream components will be feeding the Classe?

http://www.classeaudio.com/delta/specs/ca2200.htm

Here is a little info for you guys, if you are going to do a repair yourself, you can call B&W parts direct and get the part alot cheaper, the tweeter for your 601 is $32 from B&W, the tweeter for the N802's I believe are around $90 each, and are very easy to replace, you basically remove the grill and twist out the old one, unplug it and install the new one.

Here is the number (978) 664 2870, just ask for parts. Anyone can buy from them.

Hey Guys,
Looking to get a pair of B&W 685s . Any one knows where I can buy.. also any help on listening etc. will be helpful

thanks

I got a pair 685's, 683, and a HTM61 also a Denon 3808ci about 2 weeks ago and I could not be happier until to night I got a chance to go to a B&W seminar at my local home theater store where a B&W rep was on hand and he brought along some limited edition Signature Diamond speakers all I can say is WOW!!!! The tube loaded tweeter is in a marble shockproof sell at 18,000 a pair 1000 made 500 white and 500 (wakame (Japanese) dark brown/black anyway here are a couple pics

where do you live? I just got some 685's and would say at this price range they are awesome.

Over at hometheatermag.com thay have a step by step factory tour with the Nautilus.

Thanks for your comments. What I wonder is whether your meter is being responsive to bass peaks and such, where lots of power is demanded for brief moments in time, but its not being noticed because your 'average' power consumption is still low. For instance, I was playing with a McIntosh amp they had at the dealer and on a pair of inefficient speakers (forget the brand), the amp was pushing out mostly 4-8 watts but it would peak at 100w when the bass hit hard. Do you have a link that describes this meter?


Thanks, my mistake. I actually meant to say CA-2100, not the CA-2200, though that would be an obviously easier choice if money was not the concern.

Upstream I will be using my new Denon 3808CI as a pre/pro, at least for now. I need it for my HDMI video upscaling/switching and I really like this piece.

Excellent!! Thank you for that information. Very helpfull!

Otherwise you could look at the Rotel amps. I use a RB-1080 for my 703's and it doesnt really break a sweat. It should be quite alright with 803D's too and it has the ability to take low ohms without any trouble. If you want even more, used 1090's are usually available if you dont want to go the route of D-amps. But the RB-1092 are supposed to be quite alright. And it is in the "family" so to speak, although i can understand why they want to push classé for all higher stuff as its quite abit up in price, etc.

Man, I wish I knew that a couple of months ago!! Thanks for the info. It will be very handy to have in the future if I need to make repairs.

I will run a pipe organ passage that has an 8 second long 93dB passage that stresses from 22hz and up to see what happens. For example, the detector is fast enough to detect the current draw that an appliance undergoes when its compressor starts up.

Here is a review.

bboncor1
so did you get them yet? I would go nuts if I had a system like that sitting and no speakers.

Mobley78,
I live in Poughkeepsie NY Please Help

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/displa...id=45&crid=153
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/displa...id=45&crid=153

Thanks. I might give the RB-1080 a demo. Or maybe a pair of RB-1070s bridged? 360 watts into 8 ohms when bridged.

Just want to say that I improved the sound of my CM1s very noticeably today... simply by toeing them in more. I've had them about 12 degrees in since first setting them up and they've been great, but lately I've caught onto anomalies that sounded like I was hearing my room a good deal. Slight upper mid/high freq ringing mostly but also, the soundstage wasn't as focused and precise as I heard in the showroom where I first demoed the CMs.

I've been looking into possibly getting some acoustic panels to treat the ringing problem. The "clap" test reveals the issue plainly. Then I thought, "Hey, why don't I try toeing them in more?" Since it should reduce the intensity of high freq sound bouncing off my walls (which are only about 2 feet from each speaker as my room is pretty small) and also focus the soundstage more.

Well, I adjusted them so they're now about 15 degrees inward and they almost face me directly at my listening position. I began listening to some music I had been playing recently and the difference was startling. I could hear subtle musical details and sound cues much more easily. I noticed less brightness and less ringing. And instruments and vocals were considerably clearer and easier to place in space. I also decided to try throwing my faux fur blanket over my big, reflective TV (right between the speakers) to see if that would do anything. It did, as I heard clearer center imaging and further reduced unnatural brightness.

So, just goes to show that it really pays to play with your setup if you want to hear your speakers true potential. I'm pretty excited about getting some treatments in here. These look to be a really good value.

edit: Well, I ordered 8 of ATS's 24"x24"x2" panels in wine. About $200 total. Pretty darn good value. Can't wait.

edit2: I was wrong about the toe-in. I just calculated it properly and they're actually 15 degrees inward NOW. So, they must have been 7-8 degrees before. In any case they seem to be toed in an ideal amount for me now, so it's cool. Stereo panning effects are very easy to follow with my eyes, where before I could sense them moving, then lose them around the middle and then regain their location when they were almost to the other side.

Years ago the tweeter on one of my B&W Matrix 801s stopped singing. The tech at B&W recommended recoiling rather than replacement, which brought my tweeter back into service for less than $80.

My 801s still sound spectacular (driven by a Krell FPB300 monster) and B&W tech service is top notch!

After dealing on eBay for a year, I recently finished gathering four vertical 805s for surrounds plus a horizontal one for center channel, completing a very nice 7.1 system (I use a Velodyne sub). The small 805s are of the same vintage (and sonics) as the 801 Matrix. The ensemble sounds fantastic! Trouble was that some of the original owners probably thought the 805 tweeters were handles, so I had to replace two broken tweeter housings, one base (plinth) and one grille. George Miller, of B&W tech service helped me identify the parts and saw to it that they were shipped very promptly.

Here's where they are:

B&W Group North America
54 Concord Street
North Reading MA 01864-2699
Telephone: +1 ( 978 ) 664 2870
Fax: +1 ( 978 ) 664 4109
Email address: marketing@bwgroupusa.com

Good luck!

Glad to hear that! See my previous post. My 801s will probably outlive me as I see no need to trade up. They sound accurate and focused on anything from chamber music and Lieder to symphonic, opera and... noisy movies!

Cheers!

Hi

Here is my B&W 802D setup. I am very pleased with the sound of this system. Electrocompaniet and B&W are an incredible match!

[quote=marsboer;12154055]Hi

Here is my B&W 802D setup. I am very pleased with the sound of this system. Electrocompaniet and B&W are an incredible match!


Fwiw - What awsome Imagery.

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy.
..Mark

Incredible. What sub is that in the last pic, BTW?

there are some incredible setups in this thread. I can't even compete with that stuff, but since I am a B&W owner, I decided to chime in.

I have a set of 601 series 2s and a CC3 center channel powered by my Onkyo receiver. We've all got to start somewhere I suppose.

Here's a photo of my humble setup